A Babylonian Explanatory Text

R. Campbell Thompson

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00064911

A Babylonian Explanatory Text

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

R. Campbell Thompson

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Type: Miscellaneous Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 1924 , pp. 452 - 457

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00064911 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1924

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^{page 452 note 1} Abbreviations (omitting those well known): AF. = Zimmern, Akkad. Fremdw. AH. = my Assyrian Herbal. AM. = my Assyrian Medical Texts. HWB. = Delitzsch, Handwörterb. NH. = Natural History. PC. = Penny Cyclopœdia. PRSM. = Proc. Royal Soc. Medicine. RA. = Revue Assyriologique. SM. = Budge, Syriac Book of Medicine.

^{page 452 note 2} AM. 96, 3, 2.

^{page 452 note 3} “contract” (Ball, PSBA. xii, 53).

^{page 452 note 4} Hardly u me-šil “and half his words”.

^{page 452 note 5} Tâ and atu “mark” (?). Ḫubbu, šuplu, HWB. 266.

^{page 452 note 6} AF. s.v.

^{page 452 note 7} AH. 199, 269 ; perhaps = tragacanth, exuding spontaneously (or from insect-punctures), from astragalus (philologically maštakal (?)), esp. A. verus, being found thus encrusted (PC. xxv, 113); yellowish or whitish ; and hence (?) “semen-plant” in Assyr. in. nu. uš = supalu (*manna) and maštaḳal, again evidence for tragacanth.

^{page 453 note 1} Ulapi in ṭîṭ ulapi “mortar” (Thureau-Dangin, RA. 1914, 87) : šu.lal, from lal “bind”: ulap lubbutim = ḳarnu ( “bind”: HWB. 597) = ṭenu ( “clay”, rather than “glue”) (VR. 28, 55–6, g–h). Lubbuttum must be “to glue”, and ulapi lubbuttum the glue made from tanyard-refuse = in AM. used in plasters (adhesive, cf. SM. ii, 470, 472) and fumigations (for ammonia (?)) (PRSM. 1924, 14). For “fox-flesh”, Smith, CT. xxxvii, 26, 17.

^{page 453 note 2} Meissner, ZA. vi, 295. The comparison is sufficiently apt.

^{page 453 note 3} The “human-bone plant” is the safflower (AH. 261) as well as the umbelliferous asa (dulcis), and imḫur-pani is some kind of heliotrope. The yellow calendula has a remote resemblance to safflower.

^{page 453 note 4} The daisy-like Ishtar-emblem (AH. 69) and the yellow Anacyclus (AH. 71) confirm AH. 93 “probably some similar flower” (to imḫur-pani, *calendula), “probably yellow.” Imḫur-ašrâ may well be Chrysanthemum segetum, L. (see AH. 92). Šigušu, šaššugu is a bitter seed (like lupin or bitter vetch), cultivated round Seruj (Johns, Domesday, 29).

^{page 453 note 5} .

^{page 453 note 6} Cf. še-um ub-bu-lu (HWB. 7).

^{page 454 note 1} For tanning (?), cf. Thureau-Dangin, RA. 1920, 27. Tillatu, HWB. 707.

^{page 454 note 2} AM. 4, 6, 8 (PRSM. 1924, 15), where it has a horn. Kizzu, a garment, Torczyner, DKAW. 1913, 118.

^{page 454 note 3} (?) ^ugiš.gil : giš.gil = Gall, Thureau-Dangin, ib., 28.

^{page 454 note 1} For lice, AH. 192.

^{page 454 note 5} (?) mistake for ^ušiš-a-nu, cyperus (AH. 32), perhaps sis-a-nu panicle.

^{page 454 note 6} Ḫallu, Thureau-Dangin, Une Rélation, 6.

^{page 454 note 7} AH. 265.

^{page 454 note 8} *Liquidambar, styrax praeparatus (AH. 141) : ḳuliptu kaṣar “bound” : raḳḳaḳu .

^{page 454 note 9} PRSM. 1924, 2.

^{page 454 note 10} Read feminine with the adjective.

^{page 454 note 11} ki.a an.id should properly be separate from these : (e.g. uḫ an.id. separate AM. 14, 4, 4 : 32, 1, 6 : 96, 4, 6 : with ki.a an.id but apart, 93, 1, 3 : a.gar.gar an.id (preceded by [u]ḫ an.id), 78, 10, 4 : ba.ba.za (papasi) an.id, 52, 3, 7 : 58, 4 8: 70, 3, 1). Consider (a) mun.eme. šal.lim with them, which is a salt, probably efflorescent in the soil, perhaps potash, as I suggested, PRSM. 1924, 26 : its use in AM. (eyes, ears, cleaning teeth, gargle, fumigation) makes nitrate of potash, nitre, certain (like nitrum, Pliny, NH. xxxi, 46, eyes, dentifrice, vermin in head, singing in ears : cf. SM. ii, 116, ears, and 193, teeth : P. 957, gargle, inhalation). Efflorescence of nitrate of potash occurs in alluvial districts, Mesopotamia (Ainsworth, Assyria, 118) : potash in solution in floods (Admiralty, Geology of Mesopotamia, 14–15). (b) uḫ an.id “spittle of the river” (25 tt. in AM.) = “bank of Euphrates” (opposed to “bank of Tigris”, sulphur, CT. xxxvii, ii, 34–5 : AH. 257) : in AM. chiefly external, but internally 32, 1, 6 (?): lungs, 53, 4, 17 : cf. 54, 1 r. 12 : epigastrium, 48, 2, 8 : alone, eyes, KAR 202, 14 ; with sulphur alone (incense), Zimmern, Rit., 112, 9. Borax, as antiseptic, found in dried lakes near recent volcanoes, or boric acid (deposit of hot springs) (Rutley, Elements of Mineralogy, 126) satisfy the claims : I doubt my “magnesite” (PRSM. 1924, 14). Hit has its hot springs, and a trade in salt by evaporation (Ainsworth, ib., 85) : borax is part of mineral wealth of Mesopotamia (Geology of Mesopotamia, 66). (c) a.gar.gar an.id “dung of the river”, a black product. a.gar.gar, usually of gazelle, but also of sheep (AM. 69, 8, 8) : “green” (74, 1, 12). It is some small spherical black substance of the river, probably asphalt.

^{page 455 note 1} (d) ba.ba.za an.id, a white substance from the river. See Hrozný, Getreide, 105.

^{page 455 note 2} AH. 140.

^{page 455 note 3} AH. 33.

^{page 455 note 4} Gum of Pinus Halepensis, AH. 158. Inṣarû, אדציא “sap”.

^{page 455 note 5} The simile will be obvious from several species of Pinus which in spring put forth half a dozen light-coloured shoots at the end of each branch, giving exactly the impression of the cupped hand and fingers.

^{page 455 note 6} = šim.muk further on : just as šim.meš.la = šim.šal.

^{page 455 note 7} Or šamrû, “made to flow” (but distinct from šimru “fennel”).

^{page 455 note 8} = “frankincense”.

^{page 455 note 9} Possibly ku (zid) bu-uḫ-ri “grains of incense” ().

^{page 455 note 10} Salt of Amanus, possibly sal ammoniac (Jastrow, PRSM. 1914, 25). But its “red” makes it uncertain : Ibn Beithar (No. 381) speaks of a red nitre.

^{page 456 note 1} = , an adequate simile.

^{page 456 note 2} Powdering of the root ?

^{page 456 note 3} AH. 111.

^{page 456 note 4} The ^ulal is unknown : Tiglath-Pileser brought it from S. Babylonia. See AH. 99. “Like an apple, near the sea, where neither plant nor reed grows, coming out by the water, whereon …”

^{page 456 note 5} AH. 100.

^{page 456 note 6} Holma, Kleine Beitr., 78, , but ?

^{page 456 note 7} “Human Skull.“I was wrong in PRSM. 1914, 7.

^{page 456 note 8} Šikkat must be a sweetmeat. Pa'ânu, from pû, i.e. something to go. in the mouth. On kasî = roses, AH. 83. Cassia is impossible.

^{page 456 note 9} Doubtless referring to the simian nose, the animals being apes.

^{page 456 note 10} AH. 79.

^{page 457 note 1} AH. 210.

^{page 457 note 2} “From Arzania” (?).

^{page 457 note 3} Meissner, , ZA. vi, 296, but(?).

^{page 457 note 4} Fennel, AH. 50.

^{page 457 note 5} Cyperus, AH. 31.

^{page 457 note 6} The rev. contains a mention of the tops of gi.ka.lum.ma (nettle) and buṣin šadî (verbaseum, Meissner, MVAG. 1913, 2, 42).

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A Babylonian Explanatory Text

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